Arsenal: Kieran Tierney doesn’t have to prove much of anything

Arsenal brought in Kieran Tierney to revolutionize their leftback corps, and he’s being tipped to do so, but at this point, what is actually left to prove?

Kieran Tierney has yet to play in the Premier League, but the claims are coming in that Arsenal have landed a bargain. The Scottish leftback has been immaculate in the midweek competitions on his way back from injury, showing the kind of dynamism that we’ve simply grown used to not having at the position.

For the past few years, Arsenal’s leftback situation has been easy to describe. You’ve got Nacho Monreal, who’s a six or seven out of ten in every single match. Easy does it. Not much to get excited about.

Then you have Sead Kolasinac, who is either a four or an eight more times than not. His approach needs fine-tuning, but he has his moments of perfect precision and his moments of club-footedness.

Then there’s Kieran Tierney. 22-years-old. Dynamic as all hell. Capable of defending his position like peak Monreal while attacking like peak Kolasinac.

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But he boasts a degree of fine-tuning that Kolasinac doesn’t yet have (despite Tierney being younger) and he boasts a high ceiling that Monreal has never had. So to hear all these people out there saying that Tierney will prove himself an astute signing… I just want to know what else there is yet to prove.

This is the benefit to coming into a stale position, which Tierney is. It’s not like joining Hector Bellerin, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and now Calum Chambers at rightback. His only competition now that Monreal is gone is Kolasinac, and the only advantage that the Bosnian has is in pure brute strength. But that’s not as big of a perk as it once was, though I still value Kolasinac and what he brings to the club, if that needs to be said.

The point I’m trying to make is that Tierney doesn’t actually have much to prove at all. Sure, he’s only played against midweek opposition, but what we’ve seen there shows me that he has everything we’d want out of a leftback, such that I’m already fully convinced that he’s proven worthy of the cut rate we got him for. Done deal.

Maybe that’s naive, but I don’t get convinced that easily very often. Tierney has it all covered. He’s ready to be a Premier League wrecking ball. Once he has that starting job, I doubt he’ll ever lose it.